Saturday Scenes

A Reluctant Venice

Filed under: #satscene —— Sylvia @ 00:20

On the 21st of January in 1910, after heavy rainfall, the River Seine rose and flooded Paris, bringing the city to a standstill. The city transformed itself briefly into “a reluctant Venice”, with makeshift wooden walkways and small boats being used to traverse the city streets. Because the water rose slowly, there were no fatalities but police, firemen and the army took to boats in order to rescue the Parisiennes who were trapped in their homes by the rising water.

100 Years Later, Revisiting a Paris Flood – NYTimes.com

After months of unusually wet weather in 1909, January 1910 brought even heavier rainfall that, combined with faulty engineering, swelled the waters of the Seine. The river eventually rose to 26 feet above normal levels, flooding the streets and squares of central Paris.

For a time, Paris looked more like Venice: famous boulevards turned into canals, and boats replaced the flooded Métro tunnels as the preferred mode of transportation. This novel and strangely beautiful urban landscape drew the attention of artists and photographers from around the world.

There’s a gorgeous collection of photographs online: Photos of Paris flood, 1910. The water reached its peak on the 28th at 8.62 metres (28 feet 3 inches). A month later the water had receded completely.

Meanwhile, a hundred and one years later on the 21st of January 2011, many stunning photographs were taken. I wonder if they’ll be considered important documentation in the next century?

: Worcester

: Worcester

: Pembrokeshire

: St. Gallen

: London

: Dubai

: Birmingham

: Tel Aviv

: The Wirral

: Oxford

: Providence, RI

: Rotherham

: Sheffield

: Reading

: Didcot

: Pirbright

: Grand Island, NE

: Hampshire

: Cwmbran

: Madeira

: Reading

: Coeur d'Alene, ID

: Barkisland

: London

: Walnut Creek, CA

: California

: Spokane, WA

: Hatch, NM

: Basel

: Amsterdam

: Venice

: Portsmouth

Take a moment to say hello to the photographers:

Taking part is easy – just take a photo on a Saturday and tweet the url and location to @SatScenes to be included in next week’s round-up!

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Born on this Day

Filed under: #satscene —— Sylvia @ 21:53

Saturday was the 14th of January which is the birthdate of many esteemed famous important people!

On this day, the following people arrived into the world:
83BC Marcus Antonius
1131 King Valdemar I of Denmark
1507 Catherine of Habsburg
1702 Emperor Nakamikado of Japan
1741 Benedict Arnold
1861 Mehmed VI, Ottoman Sultan
1911 Norman “Sailor Jerry” Collins
1941 Faye Dunaway
1968 Ruel Fox
2012 Maxwell Justin Toms (weighing 7lb 11oz)

Welcome to the world, Master Maxwell, and well done for choosing to arrive on a Saturday!

If you look at this week’s set, you will see three photographs of our esteemed newcomer. Congratulations to @icklemouse (mother) and @thermalhound (father) and @oxonlady (grandmother) for their new arrival!

Meanwhile, on the very same day, these wonderful photographs from all over the world were taken:

: Norland

: Freshwater East

: Pembrokeshire

: Kent

: Bardsey

: St. Gallen

: Providence, RI

: Grand Island, NE

: Yorkshire

: London

: Kuala Lumpur

: Worcester

: Pirbright

: Clent Hills

: Madeira

: Didcot

: Rotherham

: Worcester

: Coeur d'Alene, ID

: Brooklyn, NY

: Minneapolis, MN

: Rotherham

: Spokane, WA

: Mesilla, NM

: San Jose, CA

: California

: Zurich

: Reading

: Varberg

: Shropshire

: Rotherham

: Maine

: Swansea

: Yorkshire

: Bedfordshire

: Nerja

And here are the people who took them:

Why don’t you join in?

We’d love to see your photos! Just take a picture on a Saturday and send it to @SatScenes with a location.

See you next week!

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Saturday Scenes of 2011

Filed under: #satscene —— Sylvia @ 22:27

Wow, what great scenes you submitted last year. I’ve finally had a chance to go over them and I’m just so in awe of all of you taking so many great photographs.

I know a couple of people took up the challenge of taking a photograph EVERY Saturday so once again, I’ve tallied up the posts for the past year.

Here are our top numbers for Saturday Scene submissions:

10th with 36 submissions: fluttabyz
9th with 38: icklemouse
8th with 40: timewind
7th with 42: fembat
6th with 45: akasylvia
5th with 47: robdavies
4th with 48: janetisserlis
3rd with 51: pendrift
2nd with 52: sahfenn

and finally, 1st with 53, which means these people submitted every week:

WEll done! I’ve opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate all the wonderful SatScenes in 2011.

And here, without further ado, are the very first Saturday Scenes of 2012:

: Pirbright

: Worcester

: Amsterdam

: Varberg

: London

: Anna Maria Island, FL

: Corpus Christi, TX

: Yorkshire

: St. Gallen

: Bardsey

: Wales

: Halifax

: Newport

: Didcot

: Worcester

: Grand Island, NE

: Reading

: Coeur d'Alene, ID

: Walnut Creek, CA

: Reading

: Maine

: California

: Rotherham

: Scotland

: Pembrokeshire

: Nerja

: Lebanon, NH

: Amsterdam

: Colville, WA

: Swansea

I love it when we get a great and varied set like this!

Here are the fast-off-the-mark photographers who took them:

So! How many Saturday Scenes will you manage this year?

You know the drill: take a photograph, tweet it to @Satscenes with a location and bask in the glory.

I’m looking forward to many more scenes from Saturdays to come.

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The Day that Never Happened

Filed under: #satscene —— Sylvia @ 23:16

The 31st of December 1994 did not occur for a large region in the Pacific Ocean. The date was simply skipped within the eastern islands of the Republic of Kiribati, who were the only nation in the world to be divided by the dateline. On 1 January 1995, they changed timezone and moved the dateline eastwards to go around the island republic. Phoenix Islands went from UTC-11 to UTC+13 and the Line Islands went from UTC-10:00 to UTC+14:00.

The Republic of Kiribati, 32 atolls and one solitary island, is the only country in all four hemispheres. The main island chain in the republic was named Iles Gilbert after the Captain who first sighted them in 1788 whilst sailing from Australia to China. The name Kiribati is based on the local pronunciation of Gilberts.

UTC+14:00 – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As a British colony, Kiribati was centered in the Gilbert Islands, just west of the old date line. Upon independence in 1979, the new republic acquired the Phoenix and Line Islands from the United States and the country found itself straddling the date line. Government offices on opposite sides of the line could only communicate by radio or telephone on the four days of the week when both sides experienced weekdays simultaneously.

UTC+14:00 is the highest time zone, meaning the Line Islands are now the first to enter into a new year, which resulted in Caroline Island being renamed Millennium Island. The time of day in the Line Islands is the same as in Hawaii but the date is one day ahead. The time is 26 hours ahead of Baker Island.

However, I’m happy to report that the 31st of December 2011 definitely did happen and you can see photographs from all over the world as proof: